Product Description

Lois goes from being a corporate journalist at a large paper in the Midwest to the owner of The Green News-Item, a small twice-weekly newspaper in rural North Louisiana. The paper was an unexpected inheritance from a close colleague, and Lois must keep it for at least a year, bringing a host of challenges, lessons, and blessings into her life.

When Lois pulls into Green on New Year's Day, she expects a charming little town full of smiling people. She quickly realizes her mistake. After settling into a loaned house out on Route 2, she finds herself battling town prejudices and inner doubts and making friends with the most surprising people.

Publisher's Description

The paper was an unexpected inheritance from a close colleague, and Lois must keep it for at least a year, bringing a host of challenges, lessons, and blessings into her life.

When Lois pulls into Green on New Years Day, she expects a charming little town full of smiling people. She quickly realizes her mistake. After settling into a loaned house out on Route 2, she finds herself battling town prejudices and inner doubts and making friends with the most surprising people: troubled teenager Katy, good-looking catfish farmer Chris, wise and feisty Aunt Helen, and a female African-American physician named Kevin.

Whether fighting a greedy, deceitful politician or rescuing a dog she fears, Lois notices the headlines in her life have definitely improved. She learns how to provide small-town news in a big-hearted way and realizes that life is full of newsworthy moments. When she encounters racial prejudice and financial corruption, Lois also discovers more about the goodness of real people and the importance of being part of a community.

While secretly preparing the paper for a sale, Lois begins to realize that God might indeed have a plan for her life and that perhaps the allure of city life and career ambition are not what she wants after all.

Author Bio

Judy Christie writes fiction with a Louisiana flavor, including the five-part Green series about a big-city journalist who winds up running a small-town newspaper in Green, Louisiana. With a writing career that began when she was the editor of her elementary school newspaper, Judy has kept a journal since she was nine years old--and still has all of them. She loves to help busy people slow down and enjoy each day more and is the author of the popular nonfiction "Hurry Less Worry Less" series, filled with practical and encouraging tips. She's a fan of porch swings, fried pies and flea markets around her home in Stonewall, Louisiana. She loves to visit with readers and writers and blogs from her green couch at www.judychristie.com.

Author Bio

Judy Christie loves to help people hurry less and worry less and has written a series of nonfiction books on how to slow down and enjoy each day more. Gone to Green is her debut novel. A former journalist, Judy lives in Louisiana, where she has fun exploring flea markets and used bookstores, wandering through the park, and sitting in the porch swing.

Library Journal

Lois Barker gives up the corporate newspaper life in the Midwest for the charms of the simple life in rural Louisiana. Her fantasy of running The Green News turns out not to be quite the perfect dream she imagined. Instead, Lois must learn to deal with corruption and prejudice while building friendships and a new life in a small, isolated community. VERDICT Narrated with the same warm charm as Philip Gulley's "Harmony" series, this debut is an above-average small-town novel.

Publisher's Weekly

Lois Barker, a successful big-city journalist, never imagined ending up in the tiny town of Green, La. She never guessed that within months she would unexpectedly inherit a smalltown newspaper. She never believed she would leave her rising-star career impulsively after a quiet, inner prompting urged, Go... Ill help you. Yet that improbable route to upheaval is precisely where Christie (Goodbye, Murphys Law) engagingly guides both readers and the charming yet flummoxed Barker. As the editor and owner of the Green News-Item, the ever uncertain Barker transforms from an overwhelmed and overly self-reliant Jane Doe into a considerable power for reform and revitalization in her depressed Louisiana borough. Refreshingly realistic religious fiction, this novel is unafraid to address the injustices of sexism, racism and corruption as well as the spiritual devastation that often accompanies the loss of loved ones. Yet these darker narrative tones beautifully highlight the novels message of friendship, community and Gods reassuring and transformative love. (Aug.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Lois has always thought that she would retire from the big city newspaper that she works for, but when her friend and mentor suddenly dies she inherits a newspaper in the small town of Green, Louisana. With years of experience behind her Lois sets of to conquer what she thinks will be a pretty easy challenge. Get said newspaper up and running and then turn around and sell it. But things don't alway turn out the way we expect.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of little things that were really charming. Like writing someone's name on the newspapers window when they passed away. Its the little details like that, that can make all the difference.

The only down side was that I wished the author had been more defined about the timeline in the book. It seemed to span a year, but the author was just not clear enough about it. I felt like I was playing catch up sometimes.

All in all though it was a fun book. I loved all the characters, they were very well written.

Lois is a corporate journalist that just got a reality check. Forced to put her job on hold, she sets off for the small town of Green, Louisiana to run a small paper that publishes only two editions a week. She inherited The Green News-Item unexpectedly from a close colleague, and being that the poor man died before he could achieve his small town dream, she is reluctant to just sell it off before giving it a chance. Committing to an entire year in Green, Lois sets about finding her place as the new boss.

If only her problems were in the singular. She was expecting a small town full of friendly, happy people, and what she discovers almost makes her turn around and head back to Ohio. She finds her new home is in the outskirts of town, with virtually no neighbors. Before she can even get her bearings, she is facing prejudices, corruption, and the everyday struggle to keep the paper out of the red. But along the way she makes surprising friendships with the citizens of Green, and it almost makes it hard to leave when the year is up and she is preparing to sell the paper. Will Lois realize that a small town is where her heart really is? Or will the allure of her job back in Ohio be stronger than the people of Green?

I found myself believing these people were actually real. As if I was simply reading a re-telling of things that actually happened. This right here is fiction at it's finest. The story draws you in, makes you feel like you can jump in the car and just drive to Green. I can see the flattened newspaper rack Lois keeps hitting when she's in a hurry, I can see the flowers along Route 2, and I can see and feel the small town charm in my mind's eye. A really good story that comes with four more books in the series. Do yourself a favor and make sure you have all five books before you start this one - you're not going to want to wait for more.

A Midwestern woman from a large city paper inherits a small town twice weekly newspaper in Louisiana. This woman, Lois, struggles to fit in to a small Southern town and to learn how to run this tiny hometown newspaper. With a lot of hard work and strong convictions, Lois is determined to make the paper & the town a better place. I admire how Lois turns back to God as she encounters all the challenges of starting over in a new place.

I have read this book and the next 3. Great stories. I'm waiting for #5 which comes out this month. Love the romance as well as the adventure. I think Lois learned a lot in the smaller city setting. The type of women I would love to meet and talk to. If you havn't read them,start with this free book and you will gladly pay to get the rest.

The Green series by Judy Christie follows the story of Lois, a reporter at a big Midwest city newspaper, but is filled with plenty of other well developed characters who each have their own plot-lines. These books keep the reader hoping. They are fast paced but thoroughly entertaining.

In book 1 of the series, Gone to Green, Lois inadvertently inherits a (very) small town newspaper in Green, Louisiana. The inheritance includes the stipulation that she run the paper for a year before she can sell it.

Of course as time goes on she (and we) grow to love the many quirky characters that fill the town. Lois' desire is to see the town thrive, and she puts her newspaper and own self into a campaign to promote green, but before she can succeed she must confront long ingrained prejudices and corrupt politicians.